This digital image may be used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the New-York Historical Society. For more information, please visit the New-York Historical Society's Rights and Reproductions Department web page at http://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions.

Notes

The commercial photography firm George P. Hall & Son operated in Manhattan from 1886 through 1914. Working out of several studios, the firm documented the changing face of New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Hall & Son's photographs were available for general sale, were published in their own calendars and souvenir viewbooks, and appeared as illustrations in such publications as King's Views of New York, Staley's Views of New York, and Harper's Weekly. George P. Hall (1832-1900) was born in 1832 in Troy, Ohio, and began his career in 1854 as a daguerreotypist in Dayton, Ohio. A year later he opened his first gallery in Indianapolis and then worked in St. Louis, before finally making his way to New York around 1872. He started his commercial photography business at 78 Fulton Street around 1875, and was officially joined by his son James S. Hall in 1886 when firm took the name George P. Hall & Son. The father and son operated the company until 1900, when George P. Hall died.